A major exhibition in Milan dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Wonder Woman

"Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, with the speed of Mercury and the strength of Hercules, she is known only as Wonder Woman!" William Moulton Marston in All Star Comics #8, 1941

The exhibition halls of Palazzo Morando are hosting an exhibition dedicated to one of the most iconic characters ever, Wonder Woman, thus fulfilling its mission as a place for discussion on issues related to costume phenomena. This is the first museum project as well as the first exhibition in Italy entirely dedicated to the female heroine of theDC universe, one of the most beloved characters of the American imagination of all time.

Conceived for publishing in 1941 by American psychologist William Moulton Marston, with early illustrations by Harry G. Peter, Wonder Woman became the U.S. television series of the same name in the 1970s, starring a timeless Lynda Carter, to finally conquer the big screen with the films Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), both starring Gal Gadot and distributed in Italy by Warner Bros. Pictures.

This year Wonder Woman turns 80 years old. Eighty years in which her figure, a highly original model of American pop culture, has embodied the heroic ideal of the woman-warrior, the DC Universe’s greatest female icon who made her debut in the pages of All Star Comics #8 as Diana, a young member of a tribe of women called the Amazons, originally from Paradise Island, a hidden island located in the middle of a vast ocean. Wonder Woman has become an undisputed symbol of truth, justice and equality, crossing and transcending geographical boundaries and decades of history. “As beautiful as Aphrodite, as wise as Athena, faster than Hermes and stronger than Hercules,” but also as tenacious as Atlas, as powerful as Zeus, as bold as Achilles: Wonder Woman embodies the best physical and moral skills that Greco-Roman mythology continues to teach us. She is unique, then, in whom we can still mirror women-and men, too-who know that they are all and every bit “wonder.”

On the occasion of her 80th anniversary celebration and the international #believeinwonder campaign, 24 Ore Cultura - Gruppo 24 Ore, in collaboration with Warner Bros. and DC, celebrates the heroine-pioneer’s anniversary with the exhibition Wonder Woman. The Myth hosted in Milan at the exhibition venue of Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine.

Accompanied by the hashtag #wondersonoio, the project, the first ever in Italy, explores the figure of Wonder Woman and the eighty years of history she has spanned, in an interdisciplinary connotation that touches many areas, fromillustration and comics to cinema, from pop culture to fashion, through an itinerary curated by Alessia Marchi and articulated in sections where comics and original plates (from the Golden Age to the present day), video installations, costumes and props from the cinematic universe cohabit.

Always at the center is the personality of Wonder Woman, what she has represented and continues to represent for entire generations: her being a symbol of equality and loyalty, her struggle against all forms of injustice, her fighting to give peace to all forms of conflict. A myth that not surprisingly has its origins in Greco-Roman classicism, that of divine figures and heroes who were protagonists in the birth of the world. Around these themes is built the exhibition project, which sees on display not only original plates and comics from the DC archive in Burbank, California, private collectors and talents, but also the original stage costumes from the Warner Bros. Pictures films Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) and the most iconic objects used on the set of the films including the shields, swords, bows and arrows used by the protagonist. Finally, a rich multimedia array of video projections and animations with archival materials and clips from Warner Bros. Pictures films and TV shows to tell the fan audience-as well as those who do not yet know her-about the entire world of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.

The exhibition begins its journey from the first cover of Sensation Comics #1 in 1942, which inaugurated the first series of comics dedicated to Wonder Woman, following her debut the previous year within the pages of All Star Comics #8, as well as from the academic training and research in the field of psychology that William Moulton Marston undertook to create the figure of the heroine, from her profile and character to her superpowers and down to her costume.

The audience is introduced to Wonder Woman’s so-called “Golden Age,” or the epic period of comics in the United States (1941-1955), through some of the most iconic covers and a video narrative that interweaves History with Myth.

In the Postwar, 1950s and early 1960s the character is rethought based on more current models and references, deprived of superpowers (starting in 1968) and finally made part of a new feminist wave. In the exhibition, next to the giant image of Ms. magazine, co-founded by activist Gloria Steinem, a selection of plates by the wonder women, the Italian illustrators of the DC universe (including: Laura Braga, Emanuela Lupacchino, Maria Laura Sanapo) who also want to draw the visitor’s attention to the value that in these decades the all-Italian drawing matrix has brought to the construction of the figure of Wonder Woman as we know her today.

One enters the myth through the immersive video installation with epic tones, which recounts the formation of Diana Prince on Paradise Island, Themyscira, allowing the visitor to discover the mythological origins of Wonder Woman.

Crucial for Wonder Woman will be the 1980s: after Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story cycle published by DC for ten issues from April 1985 to March 1986, thanks to new adventures written by Greg Potter and Len Wein and masterfully illustrated by George Pérez, the character acquires new life and dignity.

The last three decades of Wonder Woman’s history are recounted in a dedicated section. The pantheon of her illustrators now includes, among others, artists such as Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Phil Jimenez, and Brian Bolland; it is a further rebirth of the character, up to The New 52 series (since 2011) and Rebirth (since 2016).

The exhibition concludes with an excursion into the worlds of television and film: from the TV series with Lynda Carter to the recent films starring Gal Gadot. It is a short journey that also touches on the world of fashion, curated in particular through a video installation, with the research contribution of fashion historian Maurizio Francesconi, which emphasizes the importance of the stylistic influences of fashion, which together with the heroine’s costumes has gone through eighty years of changes and has playfully influenced the figure of Wonder Woman in a constant oscillation between the past, the present and an imaginary future.

The exhibition is open until March 20, 2022.

For all information, you can visit the event’s official website.

A major exhibition in Milan dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Wonder Woman

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